The never-ending crisis in british higher education

Abstract

Finn situates today’s higher education ‘crisis’-of finance, status and mission-in historical perspective, revealing that the notion has been an omnipresent feature of the discursive politics of British universities in the post-Second World War era. The chapter shows that the continuous presence of this discourse, whilst reflecting genuine changes in the position of the university in national life, also serves as a useful ‘imaginary’ deployed in political discourse in attempts to remake the academic profession. Thus, the present-day ‘crisis’ in the neoliberal university must be put into an historical perspective if the long-running transformation of universities is to be adequately understood, and neoliberal agendas successfully challenged.